Babies

News about Babies, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 26, 2015

Study in The New England Journal of Medicine says parents and doctors should weigh how urgently surgery is needed for children younger than three years; cites increasing evidence that general anesthesia may impair brain development in babies and young children. MORE

Feb. 23, 2015

A study with premature infants demonstrated that a mother’s voice and heartbeat may help the developing brain grow. MORE

Jan. 30, 2015

Five-month-old boy Mason Barrientos and 2-week-old girl Rivka Ruvinov die in separate incidents in New York City. MORE

Jan. 4, 2015

Deion McNeil, 23-day-old infant boy, dies after police find him wounded and unconscious in his family's East Harlem apartment; authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine cause of death. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Molly Wood Machine Learning column criticizes wave of new wearable devices that allow parents to track their babies' sleeping habits; observes that gadgets simply do not work well. MORE

Dec. 1, 2014

Federal study published in journal Pediatrics finds that nearly 55 percent of infants nationwide are put to bed on bedding that raises chances of suffocation or sudden infant death syndrome; study is first estimate of how many infants sleep with potentially hazardous bedding. MORE

Oct. 23, 2014

Canadian police say they have charged Andrea Giesbrecht, also known as Andrea Naworynski, with concealing bodies of six infants in a storage locker in Winnipeg, but that they were not considering it a homicide. MORE

Oct. 22, 2014

Police in Winnipeg, Canada, discover remains of four infants in a storage locker, though number of victims cannot be precisely determined. MORE

Oct. 18, 2014

Lawyer for Erika Murray, Massachusetts woman being held on fetal death charges after skeletal remains of three babies were found in her home, says baby was alive for days after birth and died during nap. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Health workers at International Medical Corps treatment center in Liberia face dilemma of how to care for newborn whose mother may have died of Ebola; many health workers have contracted Ebola while attending to births and being exposed to blood and other body fluids, provoking fears of providing maternity care; doctors speculate that Ebola can be transmitted from mother to baby (Series: The Ebola Ward). MORE

Oct. 5, 2014

Eula Biss Lives essay describes being afraid that she had contracted pertussis, despite being vaccinated, and that she would infect people and babies around her. MORE

Oct. 1, 2014

Memo From Israel; Israel's population authority makes striking decision not to include Muhammad on annual Top 10 list of baby names, despite fact that it was by far the most popular name for children born that year; choice sets off discussion about status of Israel's Arab minority, which constitutes some 21 percent of the population. MORE

Sep. 13, 2014

Police in Blackstone, Mass, find three dead infants hidden inside house of Erika Murray, as well as piles of soiled diapers and the skeletons of several cats and a dog; four other children are removed from home and Murray, who authorities believe is mother of all seven children, is ordered held without bail on charges of permitting substantial injury to a child and witness intimidation. MORE

Sep. 12, 2014

Massachusetts law enforcement officials say bodies of three infants were found in a filthy house in Blackstone where four other children had been removed by authorities. MORE

Sep. 7, 2014

Virginia Trask, 18-year-old Portland, Me, mother, is fighting do-not-resuscitate order imposed by court on her brain-damaged 1-year-old daughter Aleah Peaslee, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions; child welfare officials who intervened after baby was severely injured in December say lifesaving measures would only prolong her suffering. MORE

Aug. 10, 2014

Baby bulletin boards at most obstetricians' and midwives' across the country are gradually disappearing because they do not comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; law, known as Hippa, considers baby photos to be protected information, and says images cannot be posted without written authorization from the parent. MORE

Jul. 11, 2014

National Institutes of Health reports child in Mississippi who was thought to have been cured of HIV with aggressive drug treatment immediately after birth is now showing signs of infection with virus; findings are serious setback to hopes for cure for AIDS; about 2.3 million people worldwide were newly infected with HIV in 2012, with 260,000 infants infected at birth or immediately afterward. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

North Carolina woman Frankea Dabbs, 20, is charged with child abandonment after police say she left her 11-month-old daughter Milani Love Edmonds at the Columbus Circle subway station platform. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

Police in Ridgefield, Conn, say 15-month-old boy dies after being left inside parked car on hot summer day; death is reported by staff at Danbury Hospital, where boy's father drove after discovering his son in vehicle; police say investigation is still in progress. MORE

Jul. 8, 2014

New York City police are trying to determine identities of the baby girl abandoned on the subway platform at the Columbus Circle station and the woman who left her; baby, thought to be 6- or 7-months old, is unharmed and in custody of city's Administration for Children's Services. MORE

Jun. 24, 2014

New policy statement from American Academy of Pediatrics says parents should read aloud to their infants from birth; group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor; important brain development occurs within the first three years of a child's life, and reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills. MORE

Jun. 22, 2014

Pacifiers, soothing objects for babies to suck on, were created by Manhattan druggist Christian W Meinecke in 1901; invention became popular despite concerns about safety of early models. MORE

Jun. 15, 2014

Look column presents photos taken by Seth Casteel of babies being trained to hold their breath underwater, turn over to float on their backs and rest until help arrives. MORE

Jun. 11, 2014

Irish government will begin an investigation into allegations of neglect and criminality at so-called mother-and-baby homes, which have housed an estimated 35,000 unmarried mothers since the 1920s; investigation follows reports that the remains of 796 children, mainly babies, had been secretly buried at a home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, County Galway between 1925 and 1961. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Claim by local historian Catherine Corless that 796 children who lived in state-funded home run by Roman Catholic order of nuns are buried in mass grave in Tuam, Ireland, have yet to be substantiated; scandal has for the moment revealed more about ways local lore and small-town sleuthing can be distorted in the news media juggernaut than about what actually happened. MORE

Jun. 5, 2014

Irish government and police are coming under increasing pressure to open an investigation into allegations that a Roman Catholic religious order secretly buried up to 796 babies and toddlers born to unmarried mothers over several decades. MORE

Jun. 5, 2014

Finnish police say that they have arrested a 35-year-old woman on suspicion of manslaughter after finding the bodies of five babies in an apartment building in the western city of Oulu. MORE

Jun. 4, 2014

Researcher Catherine Corless says that 796 children may have been buried in mass grave beside a former church-run orphanage for the children of unmarried women in Tuam, Ireland; records show that the children, mostly babies and toddlers, died--often of disease--in the orphanage. MORE

May. 30, 2014

Army is investigating death of 11-month-old baby who had been treated and released less than a week earlier at the emergency room at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, NC, for viral infection. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Research study in Science Translational Medicine finds that the placenta, once thought sterile, actually harbors world of bacteria that may influence course of pregnancy and help shape an infant's health and the bacterial makeup of its gut; research is part of a broader scientific effort to explore the microbiome, the trillions of microbes--bacteria, viruses and fungi--that colonize the human body. MORE

May. 15, 2014

Molly Wood Machine Learning column explores debate about how parents should handle children and their online lives; offers ideas and facts to consider for parents who want to establish an online presence for their young children. MORE

May. 5, 2014

Maternal health and genes, not just a lack of oxygen during delivery, can play a role in causing brain injuries in full-term newborns, a new report emphasizes. MORE

May. 1, 2014

The first randomized trial of corrective helmets, which must be worn constantly and can be stressful for parents, found no better results than nontreatment. MORE

Apr. 24, 2014

Prince George, 9-month-old son of Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge, has become style icon for mothers everywhere who dream of dressing their offspring like the royal baby; stores and fashion labels report brisk sales in designs after he is seen wearing them. MORE

Apr. 21, 2014

Low levels of vitamin D in pregnancy are associated with the development of cavities in babies, researchers report. MORE

Apr. 8, 2014

Kenneth Chang Time Travel column on test developed by psychologist Joseph F Fagan III that can predict infants' scores on intelligence tests years later; test, which Fagan hoped would be used to provide assistance to children of lower intelligence, has not been widely used due to resistance to dividing children by IQ. MORE

Mar. 28, 2014

Study appearing in journal Science finds that group of babies from poor families in North Carolina that were given full-time day care up to age 5 is far healthier, four decades later, than second group that got nothing; study is part of growing body of scientific evidence that hardship in early childhood has lifelong health implications. MORE

Mar. 16, 2014

Audiences at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater are buzzing about sheer novelty of inclusion of a real baby in the Young Vic production of Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House; real infants are an extreme rarity on the stage, for all the reasons one might imagine, starting with rogue bodily fluids. MORE

Mar. 9, 2014

Editorial welcomes news that the National Institutes of Health will soon sponsor clinical trials abroad to evaluate whether early and aggressive drug treatments for babies infected with HIV can effectively cure them; contends if the results are promising, treatment could spare more than 250,000 infants who are born infected each year from a lifetime of illness or costly and toxic treatments. MORE

Mar. 6, 2014

Researchers at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections reveal that a second baby has been apparently cured of HIV through aggressive drug treatment shortly after birth, leaving little doubt that treatment works; add that, if successful, clinical trial set to begin could remake protocol for treating all 250,000 babies born infected each year worldwide; announcement is latest hopeful news about virus that causes AIDS. MORE

Mar. 3, 2014

Study appearing in journal Pediatrics finds that devices that produce soothing sounds to lull infants to sleep can be loud enough at maximum volume to damage their hearing. MORE

Feb. 28, 2014

The police have broken up four online businesses that matched prospective adoptive parents with children needing homes — in reality, baby traffickers, the police said. Some of the sites posed as public welfare interest groups, or disguised the babies as “gold jewelry.” MORE

Feb. 25, 2014

American and Indonesian experts report that Indonesia must make far-reaching and expensive changes in its health care system in order to reduce its high mortality rates of newborns and mothers. MORE

Feb. 9, 2014

Anne Eisenberg Novelties column holds that as technology becomes more sophisticated, genomic sequencing will inevitably expand into the world of newborns, but the process has both medical and ethical implications. MORE

Jan. 14, 2014

Chinese court sentences obstetrician Zhang Shuxia to death but with two years' reprieve for stealing seven babies and selling them. MORE

Dec. 26, 2013

Health authorities in China are investigating one of nation’s biggest vaccine makers after eight infants died in past two months following injections meant to immunize them against hepatitis B; says that it has suspended the use of millions of doses of a hepatitis B vaccine produced by manufacturer, Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products. MORE

Dec. 25, 2013

Dec. 25, 2013

New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg's daughter Georgina Bloomberg, and her boyfriend, Ramiro Quintana, welcome a son, Jasper Michael Brown Quintana, on Christmas Eve; baby is first grandchild for Bloomberg. MORE

A French court on Tuesday ordered a private clinic in Cannes to pay about $450,000 each to two 20-year-old women accidentally switched at birth, part of a $2.1 million settlement with both their families.

A 5-month-old boy was found dead in Washington Heights in Manhattan on Thursday morning, and 2-week-old girl was found dead in the Kensington section of Brooklyn at about the same time, the authorities said.

A C.D.C. study found that nearly a third of women of reproductive age had had an opioid painkiller prescription filled each year from 2008 to 2012, a practice that carries high risks for birth defects.